Assessment of Psychopathology in Young Children

INTRODUCTION 1 EARLY PROBLEMSMATTER 2 Progress in Psychiatric Diagnosis in Young Children 3 IMPORTANT CONSIDERATIONS IN YOUNG CHILD ASSESSMENT 4 Reliance on Caregivers for Information 4 Sensitivity to Contextual Influences, Including Caregiving Contexts 6 DOMAINS OF DEVELOPMENT 9 SELECTING AN ASSESSMENT APPROACH AND TOOL 11 Types of Tools 11 Understanding Psychometric Properties 12 Reliability 12 Validity 13 Validity of Classification 14 Normatization 15 Cultural Validity and Cultural Norms 16 Knowing What Problems Are Really Being Assessed 16 Response Formats 17 Summary 17 ASSESSMENT TOOLS 17 Screening Methods 18 Screening Methods Characteristics of Screening Tools 19 Selected Screening Tools 20 Comprehensive Dimensional Tools for Assessing Social-Emotional/Behavioral Problems 23 Selected Dimensional Checklists 24 Variation in Emphasis of the Domains That Are Assessed 29 Diagnostic Approaches 29 Selected Diagnostic Interviews 30 Psychometric Properties of Diagnostic Interviews 32 Observational Assessment 35 Assessing Impairment 35 CONCLUSIONS AND DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH 37 REFERENCES 38